Become a YNAB Certified Budgeting Coach

We require that you attend at least 15 of the 20 live sessions, so it’s fine if you have to miss a few sessions. We will send out recordings of the live sessions that you’ve missed so that you can watch them asynchronously.

It’s a one-time payment of $500. There is no application fee, and you will not be charged until you’ve been accepted into the program and you’ve agreed to a cohort start date.

We will offer several start dates every year, so if you miss this cohort or this round doesn’t fit in your schedule, there will be another opportunity. With the staff that we have on the Coaching Team right now, we don’t expect to be able to provide any evening or weekend times. We know there are many people that are interested in those time slots, though, so it’s something we will consider offering in the future, especially as our staffing situation changes.

We realize that $500 is a significant cost. We feel like the program is worth it, though! It’s much less expensive than similar personal finance programs and you’re getting more than 20 hours of asynchronous content along with more than 20 hours of live sessions with YNAB coaching trainers. We are not treating this training as a profit center, so program fees go directly back into the program for teaching, tools and support.

Although we’d love to include everyone who is interested, in past application rounds we’ve heard from more qualified applicants than we can accept. When it comes to making tough decisions, we fill each cohort with this criteria in mind. A competitive applicant will do their best to exhibit their fit in the written portion of their application.

Unfortunately, no. We don’t want the cost to be prohibitive, but we will be offering coaching cohorts throughout the year, and we feel like the value it offers is worth setting a target for in YNAB, if it makes sense for you.

Absolutely! In our beta trials of the program we had amazing coaches-in-training from the UK, Ireland, Canada and all over the US. As long as you are able to attend the live sessions, location does not matter. Also, all of the course materials and live sessions are currently only in English, so proficiency in the English language is required.

Yes. In some circumstances, if you are unable to attend classes for extenuating circumstances, or if you find that the program does not meet your expectations early on, we will be flexible with refunds. Before paying for the program, you will be able to see and thoroughly vet our refund policy and terms of service.

No. While we wish we could hire budgeting coaches internally, it’s just not feasible. You will not be a YNAB employee and you don’t receive pay from YNAB. Instead, you are encouraged to charge your clients for your coaching services.

Once you’re certified, you will continue to be part of our community. You will receive ongoing training, you will be fully aware of new features in YNAB and you’ll be a part of our coaching directory. As the program is just starting out, we’re still working on all of the details for post-certification support, but it will be robust.

Upon fulfilling all of the certification requirements (live session attendance, passing the final exam and completing the practice client sessions) you will receive a certificate and the official YNAB Certified Coach badge/seal for use digitally and in print materials. You will also appear in our official coaching directory.

Not directly, but we have a Coaching Directory, where all certified coaches can be listed. On top of that, we have put together significant content going over how to find clients and we plan to provide as much support as we can in that area.

Good on you for caring about the fine print! You can review our Supplemental Terms and Conditions right here.